Earlier text: LESSONS FROM THE STORY OF CORNELIUS.—IIITHROUGH FAITH TO LIFE.
By William Covert
FAITH is that manifestation of God's life which enables the mind to grasp and to appropriate truth. It is the communicator of life through the perceptive faculties. The living current flows to man through this channel. "Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." Gal. 3: 26. Faith is the avenue by which all the supplies of grace are brought to man. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for." Heb. 11: 1. Can anything do a more wonderful service for man than faith, which carries him into the future, and gives to him the very "substance of things hoped for"? Faith is the counterpart of things yet to be. Faith is to the mind what the stem is to the growing fruit. Through the stem the life and quality of the vine flow into the fruit. As the plant rootlets drink in the food elements, and conduct them through the stem to the fruit, so does faith convey the power of God's Spirit to the soul, establishing and maintaining connection with the divine life. "We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." Rom. 5: 2. Standing by faith in God's grace, places the believer where a thousand glorious things are seen. Faith unlocks all the chambers in the palaces of God. Looking in upon the riches and the glory of their treasures, its possessor rejoices at what the eyes of his understanding behold. He sees into eternity, and senses that all things are good. Christ had just returned from Gadara, over the lake, to a town on the western shore of Galilee. There He was met by a needy throng. Among them, Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, came, and, kneeling at His feet, asked that his dying daughter might be healed. On hearing this request of paternal love, Jesus followed Jairus, to restore her. As the people pressed hard upon Him, impeding His steps, a feeble and timid woman, who had long wanted to see Jesus and be healed, extended her hand with an effort, and gently touched the hem of His garment. Christ's Life Goes Out to Meet the Touch of Faith.
In a moment she felt the impulse of renewing life. "And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press, and said, Who touched My clothes?" He had been jostled from every side by the multitude, but only this afflicted woman had touched Him by faith. That faith, as real as the electric current, thrilled His being, and He felt the responsive power of life go out to her in answer to her soul's desire for relief. That one touch halted all the throng; and the woman, knowing she was healed, prostrated herself before Jesus, and told Him all the story of her affliction, her confident touch, and her restoration. Tenderly she was assured that her faith had made her whole. She could now depart in peace, and be well. Through faith a new life had taken possession of her whole being. While Jesus was dismissing the modest, but now happy, woman to her home, a bearer of sad tidings announced to Jairus that his daughter was dead, and that it was needless now to ask the Master to come. Hearing the sorrowful news from the messenger, Jesus said to the grief-smitten father, "Fear not; believe only, and she shall be made whole." The multitude were then sent away, and Jesus, with the parents, accompanied by Peter, James, and John, entered the chamber where the lifeless daughter lay. Death had slain its tender and beautiful victim; but the Conqueror of death was present; and, stepping to the bedside, He took the cold, pale hand in His, and mildly said, "Damsel, I say unto thee, arise." Jairus' Daughter Raised from the Dead.
Immediately the living power did its work, and the damsel was well. The father's strong faith believed that altho his child was dead, Christ would then and there restore her to life, and the Saviour would not disappoint his fond hopes. Who would not go to such a Saviour for help? Tho commanded not to report her restoration, nor even to mention it to their neighbors, it was impossible to keep such glad news from spreading abroad. Jairus, his wife, and their restored daughter were to go about as tho nothing unusual had occurred. Ah! the blessed work of Jesus always tells its own story. This is a wonderful lesson in modest humility. The joyful faces of the father and the mother, the living presence in the neighborhood of one whom the people knew to have been dead, published the wonderful story of life more effectively than words could make it known. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him." Heb. 11: 6. Wisdom, knowledge, vigilance, courage, industry, love, joy, peace, gentleness, victory, loyalty to God, and all other good qualities in man, are the fruits of faith. Could Satan destroy faith, then all these would be nullified. Satan's studied effort is to cause man to doubt God's Word. The apostle says, "The god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." 2 Cor. 4: 4. The darkened mind is the missile of death. The intent and effect of unbelief is to keep the life of Christ from the mind. While unbelief remains, death prevails. He that abides in darkness is kept from life. The Night-bird Can Not See the Sun.
Satan's stronghold is unbelief. His deepest pit is doubt. His highest wall is reared by one who says, "I can not." Satan's widest ditch is dug by him who shuts his eyes. His widest field is ignorance. Of those serving in his ranks the apostle says they are "without God in the world." Of them in action the poet Coleridge wrote:— "Forth from his dark and lonely hiding-place, Portentous sight! the owlet Atheism, Sailing on obscene wing athwart at noon, Drops his blue, fringed lids and holds them close, And, hooting at the glorious sun in heaven, Cries out, 'Where is it?'" Unbelief is always negative. It has made nothing but mischief. It has kept nothing better than dread. It has forwarded nothing that would help. It has saved nothing lovely or good. It has done nothing but kill, tear down, or destroy; and of these it has done and is doing all. How They Became Convicted
By Editor
[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the Signs of the Times has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.] BECAUSE I could not accept the commonly-taught view of the eternal punishing of the wicked, I had drifted into what the good Methodist brethren termed infidelity. After several years of this way of thinking, a good Adventist sister, one day when the subject was under discussion, said the Bible did not teach the eternal torment of the wicked. As I expressed surprise, she said, "Will you read if I give you something on the subject?" I said, "Certainly." So she brought me a couple of copies of the Signs, with articles on the state of the dead and punishment of the wicked. I read them, and then turned to my wife (who was a Baptist) and said, "See here, this looks reasonable to me." Then I re-read the articles to her, reading the Scriptures referred to in the article. When I finished, I said, "We have been off so badly on what the Bible taught about the punishment of the wicked, maybe we are just as badly off on the Sunday question." Then I sent for tracts, and began a study of the Word, as I never had studied it before. That continued for three years. After about a year I was convinced, but I spent about two years trying to find a hole to crawl out. At last I reached the conclusion that I must either obey and keep the Sabbath, or else throw the Bible and all it meant overboard. I was not quite ready to do the latter, so we began the observance of the Sabbath in June, 1888. There are so many scriptures for the seventh day as the Sabbath—presenting it as prophecy, as the statements of the Master, and the practise of the Master and those immediately associated with Him in labor. Then Luke 23:56, after the death of Christ, seemed to me to be conclusive. I was very much disappointed when I began to search for authority for first-day observance, to find absolutely none in the Bible. But when I picked up the Catholic Catechism I found just where first-day sacredness had its authority. As I was hardly ready to accept Catholicism, I had to line up with the smaller and less popular company; and I still remain there. As the years go by, every event that has developed so far has only confirmed the truth that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God." IRVING KECK. IN 1893 I attended some meetings held by Elder H. W. Decker, but my mind was so darkened that I could not comprehend the light. The explanations of prophecy were very beautiful, but the Sabbath was a new thing to me. I was not interested in it, and did not think much about it. But my mind was somewhat stirred on the subject of religion, and I was determined to know which religion was right. I talked with all kinds of people, and thought the cross was the mark of the beast. I wrote to the Signs of the Times about the "image of the beast," and the next number that I saw had an article on that subject. There it was stated that an image is a likeness, and then I understood it. I was satisfied then what religion was right, but I did not confess Jesus until 1897. The Sabbath truth did not seem to me then as of much importance. I have now been a real Sabbath keeper only about two years. When the Lord enlarged my heart, I ran in the way of His commandments. Ps. 119:32. W. W. PARKHURST. The Helpful Life
By Rev. J. S. Tillery
THE helpful life is a happy life. Bear one another's burdens, and joy will so fill your heart that you will be forced to share it with your fellows. This is Christ's law of happiness, and it is infallible. Bear burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. He was the Burden-bearer of the world. It was the law of His own life, and upon the lives of His followers there lies the same obligation to sympathize, to serve.—Rev. J. S. Tillery. "HAVE IT TO THYSELF."
By Editor
IN the conclusion of his masterly argument and appeal in Romans 14, the apostle Paul uses these words: "Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God." We can not get the force and application of this exhortation unless we keep in mind the one great thought of the chapter, expressed in its negative form by "judge not," in its positive, by "charity." Why should we not judge our brother?—(1) Because judgment belongs unto God. He knows all and is infinitely just. He only can render justice to His creatures. (2) We are short-sighted, limited in wisdom and knowledge, sometimes swerved by prejudice, and are in ourselves equally guilty with our brother. "Wherefore thou art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost practise the same things." Rom. 2:1. This is a difficult thing for poor mortals to see, and yet a great deal of that wonderful epistle to the Romans is used of the Spirit to convince us of that very fact. We pride ourselves, perhaps, on our morality. We see the drunkard in the ditch, or the thief in the jail; and we feel the robes of our self-righteousness about us, and thank ourselves that we are not as those men. We never got drunk. We never stole. Our reputation is all right. We feel indignant that it should even be suggested that we were one with the drunkard, the thief, the adulterer. But pause a moment, friend. If you have not done these outward things, have they not clamored in your flesh for indulgence? And who or what has kept you from them? Was it pride in yourself and your own virtue? That pride may be more hateful in God's sight than the sin of drunkenness or theft; for you cherish and love the foolish pride, while the drunkard and thief are sorry for their enslavement and ashamed of their sin. What kept you from the grosser sins? Your ancestors were a few generations ago pagans, perhaps of the grossest sort. They reveled in drunkenness and licentiousness, made it, in fact, a part of their religion. If paganism had continued among them, their posterity till extinct would have been more outwardly corrupt and degenerate than they. Then what changed their course and kept you?—It was the mighty, regenerating, restraining power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Bible, which has wrought it all. Some who have yielded to it have been regenerated and reformed, while others have been convicted, made ashamed, and have been restrained. Many, very many, through godly parents and teachers, have imbibed blessed principles of righteousness and truth from earliest infancy to manhood, and these principles have had a moulding influence on their lives, even tho they are converted, they have restrained. And all this regenerating, restraining goodness is of the grace of God, in Christ Jesus, and not of the flesh. That is the teaching of Romans, that is the teaching of the whole Bible. Paul, himself a boaster of his own morality, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, came at last under the influence of God's Spirit to see it, and thus he expressed the important truth: "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing." It is a great universal fact. Sin is incarnate, infleshed in all mortals; and he who follows the flesh and its life, will inevitably manifest "the works of the flesh," "fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorceries, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factions, divisions, parties, envyings, drunkenness, revelings, and such like." Gal. 5:19-21. There is where the world stands apart from Christ. The form may be erect and strong, the face fair and beautiful, the eye bright and pleasant, but the flesh is corrupt, and its impulses ever tend downward. There may be no open adultery, but the consuming lust may be there. Drunkenness may not be manifest, but hatred and strife may be enthroned. And all are fruits of the same flesh, and the end of all is death. It has been the studied plan of the arch-enemy of God to deceive mankind into believing that goodness dwelt in them; that they, themselves, were a part of God; that God dwelt in them, whatever their condition, and so lead them to exalt in various forms and phases every corrupt impulse of the flesh as divine. But the whole teaching is the outgrowth of that first deceiving lie, "Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God." And the lusts of the flesh have been deified, man has been exalted, God forgotten, Christ and His cross hidden, and His truth which would save perverted. In the light of the Gospel it is not too much to say,—nay more, it is the only true thing to say,—that he who will not accept this great fundamental fact of his own inherent sinfulness, his own innate corruption, never will in the very nature of the case receive Jesus Christ as his only personal Saviour, and hence will not be saved; for "they who practise such things [the works of the flesh] shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Gal. 5:21. And that is what God wants us to believe, not that it may be so, but because it is so. We are hopelessly sick in sin. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately sick," reads the Revised Version of Jer. 17:9. The American Revised Version states the same truth, "it is exceedingly corrupt." We see it in past generations; we see it in other people; but in our selfish blindness we can not, because we will not, and do not wish to, see it in ourselves. Yet we are the same as others, and from the fountain of our heart proceed the vile train of thoughts that are evil, "fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, covetings, wickednesses, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, railing, pride, foolishness." Mark 7:21, 22. No profession of religion will change the heart; no form of godliness will heal leprosy of sin. We may call it New Thought, or Theosophy, or Christian Science, or Christianity; if we do not possess more than the form, we are still inextricably bound, so far as man is concerned, to the body of the flesh of sin and death. Now faith is the acceptance of what God says. It is believing God as to our condition, as much as to His power to save. Unless we know we are lost, we will not desire salvation. Unless we know we are hopelessly sick in sin, we will not accept the only Physician. Therefore, the emphasis of His diagnosis, "Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God." Know yourself as He reveals you. See yourself as He describes you. "But that would bring despair," you say. Nay, not at all. It may reveal you the very chief of sinners, but it will reveal Christ Jesus the chief of saviours, the One mighty to save. And then you will know that Gospel message for these days: "Fear God, and give Him glory." You will know there is naught in man of which to glory. AN OFT-MISQUOTED TEXT.
By Editor
ONCE more we will call attention to the reading of Hab. 2:2. Probably nine times out of ten, people who attempt to quote it do so in order to show that the truth is to be made so plain that he who runs may read. But this expression and the thought are as different from those of the text as it is possible for them to be. The text reads: "And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run who readeth it." The Word of God is not made plain to people while their minds are otherwise so engaged that they are running in pursuit of something else. They must first stop and give earnest heed to the things that are spoken. If even those who profess to believe the Word fail to give such heed, they may even lose what they have learned. Heb. 2:1. What the Lord would have His servants do is to make the Word so plain that those who read may be impressed to run with the message to others. In olden times important messages were carried by runners, and it was deemed folly for one to run unless he had a definite message. See 2 Sam. 18:19-31. So with the message now due to the world—the Gospel of the coming kingdom—it must be made plain to those who are willing to hear and understand, that they too may join in the good work of its proclamation. This will be the logical effect of the message upon every honest heart. But he who undertakes to run without a proper understanding of the message, may find in the end that, like Ahimaaz, he may have to "turn aside and stand still," while the better work of some less pretentious runner may gain the recognition of the King. HOW THE LEAVEN OF SKEPTICISM WORKS.
By Editor
FORTY years ago Bishop Colenso, a missionary of the Church of England in South Africa, published his views regarding the unhistorical character of the books of Moses. The publication created a great sensation throughout Europe and America, a sensation of real indignation among churchmen of all denominations, insomuch that many volumes in refutation of the bishop's heterodox views were soon put into circulation. But the "new thought" had also adherents who were not slow to encourage and energetically promulgate the heresy, and their success in finding a susceptible soil in which to cultivate the seed of infidelity has been remarkable in spite of all opposition. In fact, many of the opponents of the raid on the Pentateuch soon became passive in their dissent, and others, not so radical, became first apologists, and finally advocates. Referring to the change in popular sentiment in this regard, the Springfield, Mass., Republican says:— To-day a tenfold more radical book issues quietly from one of our Christian colleges, and takes its place as a standard work of reference at the elbow of every scholarly clergyman, not only without surprise or protest, but even without remark. The thing is a matter of course. Within the brief space of a single generation has occurred a revolution in religious views more fundamental than all of the combined changes of all the centuries since our pagan forbears accepted Christianity. This latest addition to the fast-growing volume of literature laden with religious infidelity is a book on Old Testament history, by Prof. Henry Preserved Smith, of Amherst College, and is the latest volume of the "International Theological Library." We are averse to giving publicity to the details of error, but, as a sign of the times, we note a few of the points in this learned dissertation against Scripture facts, while still nominally holding that "the Bible is a storehouse of spiritual truth." Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are not regarded as persons, but as personifications of tribes or groups of tribes. The actual existence of a personal Joseph or a real Israel in Egypt is denied, because some infidel "scientists" say they find no evidence. Yet other scientists find abundant evidence—in the relics of public work done under Joseph's supervision, and of the "store cities, Pithom and Raamses," which were built by the enforced labor of the Israelites. It is denied by Professor Smith that there ever was a tabernacle in the wilderness, as described in the book of Exodus, or that the Israelites ever conquered the land of Canaan under Joshua. According to this new theology, now "international" in its extent and influence, David did not write the Psalms; the accounts of Solomon's glory are gross exaggerations; his famous wisdom was only a readiness in enigmas and riddles, and he was far behind certain heathen kings as a ruler. But fortunately we have the book of Proverbs as an example of wisdom far beyond anything that skeptical theologians have so far been able to produce. It is claimed that the "Elijah stories" are mere legends, and those of Elisha are simply duplicates. There was no great return from Babylonish captivity, and Ezra is set up as an imaginary person. Daniel, also, is accounted as a fictitious character, etc., etc. With all this array of discredit, of what use could the Bible be more than any other story-book? Leaving out the book of Genesis alone would vitiate the whole story of the Gospel of Christ. From what other source could we learn of the fall, the need of a Saviour, or the promise of a Saviour? The promise of heirship in the kingdom of God is to Abraham and his Seed, which is Christ. If Abraham be a myth, what about Christ? "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." But if Abraham be a fiction, then the promise is fictitious, and the heirship is fictitious.7 What better scheme could the adversary of Christ concoct for the frustration of the Gospel of salvation? Yet we are confronted with the fact that such doctrine goes as "a matter of course" among "scholarly clergymen;" that books of such a character take place as "standard books of reference" with many to whom the people are looking for instruction in the Word of God. What shall become of the people, when those whom they trust as spiritual advisers thus deliberately "exchange the truth of God for a lie"? "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them." "All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the Word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you." JESUS tells us that "the thief [the adversary of souls] cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly." What life does He give in such abundance?—It is the life that only those can have who accept of Christ. It is the life spoken of in John 3:36: "He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life." Christ never promised that His followers should have more of the life of which all partake than would be allotted to other mortals; rather, being put to death is one of the consequences of faithful service in the Gospel, and millions of disciples have had their lives cut short because of their faith. The disciple of Christ is "born again," is a "new creature," born of the Spirit, and, therefore, imbued with spiritual life. This is a life which, once imbibed and fostered, incessantly becomes more abundant. The apostle's prayer for the Ephesians was, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God." Eph. 3:17-19. The life of the natural man is sustained by material food, but the spiritual life is sustained and augmented by the Word of God. "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." Only the infinite Mind can comprehend the possibilities of a spiritual life. It can not be that in the limited state, where the people of God are on trial, they will reach in experience the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that awaits them in the future state. But of the carnal life inherent in the natural man, the Spirit says: "Man, that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble." Job 14:1. That this is not the life that comes of faith in Christ, the Lord showed when He said to the Jews, "Ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life." John 5:40. This was spoken to men who already had the ordinary animal life. The life of the animal creation, of which all partake, is a blood life. "The life of the flesh is in the blood." Lev. 17:11, 14. But "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." John 3:5, 6. "Flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." 1 Cor. 15:50. The blood life is a corruptible life because of sin. The blood life was forfeited as the penalty of sin; and the Spirit life is substituted to all who receive Christ by faith. They receive it mentally while in the blood life, and physically at the resurrection. The resurrection body will comprise "flesh and bones" (Luke 24:39), but not blood. This change will also take place in those who are translated at the coming of the Lord. See 1 Cor. 15:51-55, also the following:— "If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy; the second Man is of heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." Verses 44-49. So, then, the life which Christ desires to impart so "abundantly," is not merely a prolongation of a forfeited life, a life declared to be "corruptible," but it is that new life of the Spirit which we received by faith when we were "begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the Word of God, which liveth and abideth." 1 Peter 1:23. THE DECEPTION OF THE DEVIL.
THE writer listened just recently to a lecture from one of the leading lights in modern theology, Dr. Lyman Abbot. His subject was, “The Foundations of Religious Belief.” It was the first of a regular course to be given to the students of the Pacific Theological Seminary, a Congregational school, but it was given in the First Presbyterian church of Berkeley, to the public as well. The first part of the doctor’s lecture was the setting forth and the repudiation of the agnostic theory of religion or the unseen, the theory that all knowledge comes to us through our senses or deductions from such knowledge. This theory left us without a future, without a soul, without a God, without will, without responsibility, mere machines, responsive to the caprice of impulse and the influence of environment. Or, at the very best, it could recognize any of these desirable things as mere hypotheses. Surely a most undesirable and unreasonable theory, and one utterly incapable of meeting the longings, aspirations, and needs of the human heart. But what did the doctor have to offer in its place? Nothing, absolutely nothing; but human consciousness and the concurrent testimony of human consciousness. And he believed this to be the paramount authority, not only in the pagan religions of the world, but in Christianity as well. The basis of the Christian belief was human consciousness alone. It was not a book written eighteen hundred years ago, the doctor told us, nor the miracles Christ wrought, nor anything else save that which was within man. Verily, the doctor’s witness is lamentably lame and fearfully fallible. Led by it, we have the multitude of religions in the earth to-day, and a world-wide Babylon. Never was there planned a better basis for the world-wide, last-day deception of the devil. It is the basis of the New Thought doctrine, of Modern Spiritualism, and other destructive isms. It has for its evidence one witness only, the most fallible conceivable. (We are not here speaking of the religious instinct which demands something to worship, but the true foundation for belief in the religion of Christ Jesus.) Human consciousness as authority will seek to possess constantly clearer evidence in the lines of human desire. It will lay the whole being open to suggestions which appeal to human consciousness. And, guided by the consciousness alone, it will open the heart and soul to all the deceptions of the devil, the master of the carnal mind. The one true great evidence of the Christian is the Bible, the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures. The truth and divinity of that Book are fortified with such clear, strong evidences that the honest in heart, the lover of truth, must accept them even tho he is opposed to the Book. That Book is not affected by human consciousness. It speaks ever the same story. It reveals the way, the truth, the life. It warns of dangers. It points out sin. It speaks pardon to the transgressor. It reveals an immutable law. And all that is needed in morality and grace is revealed in that Word. That is the divine unchangeable witness. When work has been wrought in our heart which witnesses with the revelation of that Book, then may we know that God’s truth is true to us, and not till then; and the one infallible witness then is the ever-living Word. “The voice of One saying, Cry. And one said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth, because the breath of Jehovah bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass. The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever.” Isa. 40:6-8. This is the relative worth of the human and the divine. What wonder that Christian Science, Modern Spiritualism, Theosophy, New Thought, and other isms find the churches such favorable recruiting grounds? Such teaching as that of Dr. Abbot has prepared the way. 1493.—The First Church and its Name.
What was the name of the first church? Was the Roman Catholic worshiped any time before the seventy years after the crucifixion of Christ? Did the church of which Christ was the Corner-stone in Zion have any name? L. E. A. We do not know as God gave His church any definite name. The first church carries us back to the very beginning. “Congregation of the Lord” it is often called in the Old Testament. Deut. 23:3. We can go back to the beginning and read, “Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord.” Gen. 4:26, margin. In Gen. 6:2 they are called “the sons of God;” in Ex. 19:6, “a kingdom of priests,” “a holy nation.” In the New Testament this congregation, this nation, is called “the church in the wilderness.” Acts 7:38. The word “church” comes from ekklesia, meaning a company regularly called out. Sometimes it is “the church of God,” sometimes “the church of Christ,” sometimes only “the church.” In Eph. 1:23 and elsewhere these called-out ones are called “the body of Christ,” and in ch. 2:19, 20, “the household of God,” on which both prophets and apostles builded, Jesus Christ being the chief Corner-stone. All these refer to “the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” 1 Tim. 3:15. Twice the term “Christian” is used. Acts 11:26; 26:28. One epistle is addressed, for instance, to “the church of the Thessalonians;” another, “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse;” another, “to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi;” another, “to the saints which are at Ephesus;” another, to “the churches of Galatia;” another, “unto the church of God which is at Corinth;” another, “to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints;” sometimes, “the church that is in their [or his] house.” From these, and other references, it is evident that the “church” dates from the time that souls responded to God’s call to come out from the world, and that God has given that church no definite, specific name. The Roman Catholic Church dates from the apostasy in Rome. It began when the mystery of iniquity began to work and men should arise in the church and draw away disciples after themselves. 2 Thess. 2:7; Acts 20:29, 30. The true church of the living God centers in that body of believers which has the twofold witness of the Scriptures and God’s law translated through Christ Jesus in her own life. 1494.—The Sabbath for the Gentiles.
Where is the mention of the Sabbath during the long period of years of Noah’s time, and the 400 years while the children of Israel were in Egypt? By an unbiased mind the Sabbath was given to the Jews, just as they reached Sinai. It was not intended for the Gentiles. Ex. 35:1-3. The book of Genesis covers a very long period, over 2,500 years, according to Usher’s chronology. It is not a book of laws, but a very brief history of God’s dealing with mankind and a record of the ancestry of Christ. It is not a book of laws. All that are mentioned are mentioned incidentally. Yet the institution of the Sabbath is mentioned in the very beginning of that period. Gen. 2:1-3. And the record in Genesis 6 and 7 shows clearly that days were reckoned by sevens. The sojourn in Egypt is covered in a very few chapters in the last of Genesis and first of Exodus, and again no laws are given. This has not been the purpose of the writer of these records. The same thing is true during the period between the entrance to Canaan and the time of David, when much fuller history is given, and when there is no dispute as to the observation of the Sabbath. For hundreds of years it is not mentioned. God gives special promise through His prophet to the strangers who take hold of His covenant, and keep His Sabbath. Isa. 56:1-7. And it may be said that there is absolutely no promise, whatsoever, to the Gentiles, only as they get it through Israel; for “salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22; Rom. 9:4. Two more scriptures which ought to settle the Sabbath question forever in the minds of all believers of the Bible: “The Sabbath was made for man” (Mark 2:27); “God that made the world . . . hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation” (Acts 17:24-26). Gentiles are men.